The Adoration of the Magi

Date 29/11/2008 - 01/03/2009

Peter Paul Rubens' Adoration of the Magi , one of the showpieces at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, has been subjected to close scientific examination as part of the museum's ongoing Rubens research project. Aspects studied include its genesis and restoration history, the painting techniques applied and the painting's iconography. A two-meter-high platform allowed visitors to come eye to eye with the Holy Family, the three Magi and their suite.

Peter Paul Rubens completed The Adoration of the Magi, an altarpiece for the presbytery of the Premonstratensian Abbey of St. Michael in Antwerp, around 1624. The portrait of the commissioner of The Adoration of the Magi, Abbot Matheus Irsselius, which Rubens delivered along with the altarpiece to compensate for its high cost, was on loan from Copenhagen for the duration of this show. Together with the other exhibited works and video presentations, it has contributed to a better understanding of the altarpiece, the meaning of which can be explained in the context of the Counterreformation in Antwerp and the role of the Norbertines in this movement.